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By analysing good practices across Europe the forum participants aim to find solutions for wider participation from social partners and their involvement in the facilitation of economic growth and job creation at all levels.
The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU takes place at a time when the senior officials of the EU acknowledged a need for greater and deeper involvement of social partners in addressing the macro level socio-economic issues. These issues were discussed during the conference on social dialogue organised by the European Commission on 5 March in Brussels, and discussions on these issues continued during the Tripartite Social Summit in Brussels on 19 March in Brussels.
“While the European Commission has just initiated measures to achieve a greater involvement of social partners in addressing major socio-economic matters, Latvia can already be proud of tripartite agreements made during the economic crisis and systematic cooperation between social partners and the government in post-crisis period. At the same time Latvia can learn from the experience of other countries organising the bipartite autonomous social dialogue cooperation between employers’ and employees’ organisations. Therefore I consider that the social partners’ forum organised by Latvia will be sharing a good experience and good practices for representatives of all countries of the European Union,” said LDDK President and the Vice-president of BusinessEurope, the European Employers' Confederation (former Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe ), Vitālijs Gavrilovs.
“There will be vital changes in the development of social dialogue driven by restructuring of the economy, and changes in industry and business. The current role of social dialogue at all levels is to achieve a strong and enforceable agreement between partners to mitigate the effects of the austerity policy caused by the crises. Currently social dialogue in Latvia has to focus on generally binding collective bargaining within sectors, which would ensure decent standards of employment in all enterprises within the industry. Therefore, this forum will be very important for development of social dialogue in Latvia and in Europe since by learning from experiences of various countries we can discuss the necessary actions to strengthen social dialogue,” LBAS President Pēteris Krīgers shared his thoughts on the matter.
A panel discussion of senior officials and social partners of the EU devoted to both the role and current situation of social dialogue, and challenges for economic growth and qualitative employment will be held during the social partners’ forum. Also parallel sessions will be held devoted respectively to the tripartite social dialogue at national and regional as well as sectoral and enterprise level. Thus all levels of social dialogue and experiences in its implementation of various countries, institutions, and enterprises will be covered.
At the end of the forum recommendations of the social partners’ forum will be presented to enhance the development of social dialogue at EU, national, regional, sectoral and enterprise level. Recommendations will be submitted to the European social partners, the European Commission and the Presidency of the Council of the EU during the EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council’s (EPSCO) meeting which will take place on 20-22 April 2015, in Riga.
Around 200 participants of social partners’ organisations from all over Europe will attend the social partners’ forum. Also the European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis , experts from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), European level social partners (the European Employers’ Confederation BusinessEurope, The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UAPME), European Centre of Employers and Enterprises Providing Public Services (CEEP) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)), as well as national level social partners from the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, etc. will participate in the social partners’ forum.
The forum will be held in Riga, at the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in Elizabetes street, 55.
The social partners’ forum ‘Role of Social Dialogue in Ensuring the Economic Growth and Qualitative Work Places ’ will take place with support of the European Union's structural funds 2007-2013 programming period projects ‘Strengthening Administrative Capacity of LDDK in Regions" (No.1DP/1.5.2.2.1./08/IPIA/SIF/002/02) and ‘Administrative Capacity of the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia’ (No.1DP/1.5.2.2.1./08/IPIA/SIF/001/01).
